it will never cease to delight me that in the trilogy, gimli is shown to be charming, with all the polish and grace of a trained diplomat—he trades wits with elrond and speaks so graciously to galadriel that she gives him a gift denied feanor; his extemporaneous description of the glittering caves is what convinces legolas to travel there with him after the war, he sings the song of durin so well that sam begs to learn it.
whereas legolas is this big cheerful lug of a hunter-tracker, incidentally a prince, only unwittingly beautiful and graceful—his speech is decidedly stiff and formal, even when he’s trying to be gentle, but then turns around and starts singing without realizing he’s forgotten half the song. He has strange moments of seriousness, when the ancientness of him shines through, but then—
I do wonder what their first conversations were, gimli dignified but a little chilly; legolas stiff even as he attempted humor, but a way forward nonetheless.
September 22 – “At last the day of the Big Party arrived. Everywhere there was too
much to eat, and by midafternoon there were broken presents lying all
over the Shire attesting to the low quality of their manufacture. Gandalf
set off a series of fireworks later on in the day, including great
skywriting missiles and little flaming butterflies who took to wing,
sailed off into the Eastfarthing and burned all its trees to the ground. The last firework sent up a great black smoke which took the shape
of a giant mountain of fire. A flicker could be seen of a giant dragon
sailing about its peak; after a moment the great dragon went sailing over
the heads of the crowd, causing great panic and consternation and six
outright heart attacks before imploding somewhere over the
Sackville-Baggins’ neighborhood, causing considerable property damage
which was never properly repaired for generations afterward. ‘That is the signal for supper!’, Bilbo cried out to the survivors,
who were only partly mollified.”
My theory is that it’s because the Hobbits showed Boromir the possibility of camaraderie based on kindness and liking, as opposed to regimentation and excellence like he grew up with.
Ah my heart!
My theory was always that it was because he was such a loving older brother. I think they sparked that protective older brother instinct in him.
What I would give for Tolkien to meet Peter Jackson and just be like “Oh hey lemme explain you a thing”
No, guys, this is fantastic because it actually happened. From a letter Tolkien wrote to a friend, complaining about a proposed movie adaptation:
Here I may say that I fail to see why the time-scheme should be deliberately contracted. It is already rather packed in the original, the main action occurring between Sept. 22 and March 25 of the following year. The many impossibilities and absurdities which further hurrying produces might, I suppose, be unobserved by an uncritical viewer; but I do not see why they should be unnecessarily introduced. Time must naturally be left vaguer in a picture than in a book; but I cannot see why definite time-statements, contrary to the book and to probability, should be made.
Seasons are carefully regarded in the original. They are pictorial, and should be, and easily could be, made the main means by which the artists indicate time-passage. The main action begins in autumn and passes through winter to a brilliant spring: this is basic to the purport and tone of the tale. The contraction of time and space in 2 destroys that. His arrangements would, for instance, land us in a snowstorm while summer was still in. The Lord of the Rings may be a ‘fairy-story’, but it takes place in the Northern hemisphere of this earth: miles are miles, days are days, and weather is weather.
Strider does not ‘Whip out a sword’ in the book. Naturally not: his sword was broken. (Its elvish light is another false anticipation of the reforged Anduril. Anticipation is one of Z’s chief faults.) Why then make him do so here, in a contest that was explicitly not fought with weapons?
Why has my account been entirely rewritten here, with disregard for the rest of the tale? I can see that there are certain difficulties in representing a dark scene; but they are not insuperable. A scene of gloom lit by a small red fire, with the Wraiths slowly approaching as darker shadows – until the moment when Frodo puts on the Ring, and the King steps forward revealed – would seem to me far more impressive than yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings.….
Rivendell was not ‘a shimmering forest’. This is an unhappy anticination of Lórien (which it in no way resembled). It could not be seen from Weathertop : it was 200 miles away and hidden in a ravine. I can see no pictorial or story-making gain in needlessly contracting the geography.
Time is again contracted and hurried, with the effect of reducing the importance of the Quest. Gandalf does not say they will leave as soon as they can pack! Two months elapse. There is no need to say anything with a time-purport. The lapse of time should be indicated, if by no more than the change to winter in the scenery and trees.
The Balrog never speaks or makes any vocal sound at all. Above all he does not laugh or sneer. …. Z may think that he knows more about Balrogs than I do, but he cannot expect me to agree with him.
A splendid sight. It is the home of Galadriel… an Elvenqueen.’ (She is not in fact one.) ‘Delicate spires and tiny minarets of Elven-color are cleverly woven into a beautiful[ly] designed castle.’ I think this deplorable in itself, and in places impertinent. Will Z please pay my text some respect, at least in descriptions that are obviously central to the general tone and style of the book! I will in no circumstances accept this treatment of Lórien, even if Z personally prefers ‘tiny’ fairies and the gimcrack of conventional modern fairy-tales.
Z has cut out the end of the book, including Saruman’s proper death. In that case I can see no good reason for making him die. Saruman would never have committed suicide: to cling to life to its basest dregs is the way of the son of person he had become. If Z wants Saruman tidied up (I cannot see why, where so many threads are left loose) Gandalf should say something to this effect: as Saruman collapses under the excommunication: ‘Since you will not come out and aid us, here in Orthanc you shall stay till you rot, Saruman. Let the Ents look to it!’
Pan III…. is totally unacceptable to me, as a whole and in detail. If it is meant as notes only for a section of something like the pictorial length of I and II, then in the filling out it must be brought into relation with the book, and its gross alterations of that corrected. If it is meant to represent only a kind of short finale, then all I can say is : The Lord of the Rings cannot be garbled like that.
I do earnestly hope that in the assignment of actual speeches to the characters they will be represented as I have presented them: in style and sentiment. I should resent perversion of the characters (and do resent it, so far as it appears in this sketch) even more than the spoiling of the plot and scenery.
– excerpts from Tolkien getting angry over “the film treatment” of Lord of the Rings, Letters, Letter 210, June 1958
The fact that Boromir lost his horse on his travel to Rivendell and had to walk alone the remaining way on foot for at least many weeks is not appreciated enough.
I kind of hope that one day in the future our recorded history gets lost or distorted to the point that the events of the Lord of The Rings are somehow misinterpreted to have actually happened long ago.
